George Miller

Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California

Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. (Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to support the Higher Education Relief Opportunities Student Act of 2001, and I thank the gentleman from California (Mr. McKeon) for his hard work and the bipartisan spirit which he brought to this important bill. This act will give the Secretary of Education the authority to adjust the laws governing student aid programs, if necessary, in response to the September 11 attacks. It will allow the Secretary to ensure that members of the armed services and students are not punished financially by the attacks. We obviously support this legislation. I find it ironic that we are doing this piece of legislation, but we are not going to do the previous legislation under discussion to help these families who have been devastated by these attacks. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California

Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California. Mr. Speaker, I withdraw my reservation of objection.

Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California. Mr. Speaker, reclaiming my time, I thank the gentleman for his explanation.

Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California

Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California. Mr. Speaker, I would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge the passing of Barbara Alexander, a very special woman whose life was dedicated to aiding children. Barbara is best known as a loving, energetic, feisty, and diligent advocate for advancing educational opportunities for children, especially children from economically disadvantaged families. Her courageous efforts continued until her untimely death at age 64 on November 27th of this year. Born in Beaumont, Texas, Barbara moved to Richmond, California, in my congressional district, with her family when she was 7 years old. She met her future husband, Billy Alexander, while in church one Sunday. Barbara was married to Billy for 44 years and was the proud mother of three daughters, five sons, seven grandchildren and two great- grandchildren. Barbara's activism on behalf of public school children began in 1963, when her eldest daughter, Gaye, entered kindergarten at Coronado Elementary School in Richmond. She volunteered countless hours at the school and joined the Parent Teacher Association and the school advisory council. In the 1970s, Barbara and Billy successfully won a court decision against the Richmond Unified School District and the State of California for their handling of federal funds committed for special education students under Title I. Soon afterward, Barbara's involvement in education and her fight for the rights of disadvantaged children intensified. She served as a member of the National Coalition for Title I Parents, and the California Association for Compensatory Education. Barbara continued her lifelong passion for poor children by pioneering programs to assist low-income children such as Dreams for Children, which raised money to take low-income children shopping for Christmas, a Day of Sharing at Nystrom Elementary School, weekend tutorial programs, and a summer school program called Summer of Hope. In recent years, the Alexanders founded the West Contra Costa Back- To-School Festival, an annual event that brings together businesses and community organizations to provide free school supplies, health screenings and community services to students attending schools in Contra Costa County. Last September, about 2,000 students and their parents benefitted from the event. Billy fondly calls Barbara a modern- day ``Robin Hood'' because she passionately helped poor children and their families even when her own family was experiencing financial difficulties. I want to thank Billy personally for the sacrifice he and his family made throughout the years. Barbara Alexander was a model for us all. Indeed, her passion and advocacy will continue to inspire us to explore ways to improve educational opportunities for all children. Mr. Speaker, today the House is going to pass historic legislation to reform the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, a law to benefit disadvantaged public school students first enacted in 1965. I would like to think that Barbara Alexander would be proud of the work we have done in this bill to ensure that federal aid to schools in fact is targeted, better than ever before, on those children most in need of help. I would like to think that she would be proud of our efforts to ensure that all children are taught by qualified teachers, that they have quality after-school programs and that they will benefit from the bright lines we will soon draw with regard to our expectations for schools. Our bill is rooted in the belief that all children, no matter what their backgrounds, can learn equally well as their schools have the proper resources and a qualified teaching staff. I believe these are the goals that Barbara Alexander spent many years of her life fighting for, and I will think of her today, and the children she fought for, as we pass this historic bill.

Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California

Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Kildee), who is our ranking member on the Subcommittee on Elementary and Secondary Education; and I want to publicly thank him for his work to make sure that we had an independent, freestanding after-school program as a part of this legislation.

Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in very strong support of the conference report for H.R. 1, the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. Nearly a year ago, Congress embarked on a mission to improve the education of America's public school students. Today, I am proud to say that we have produced a consensus bill that, when implemented by the Administration as intended by Congress, will dramatically expand the opportunity for all children in our country to learn. a cooperative and bipartisan process This bill is the result of many people's labor and ideas. I deeply appreciate Chairman John Boehner for the leadership, candor and honesty that he displayed throughout his process. He has been a man of his word. President Bush told us a year ago in Texas that he wanted to make education reform the hallmark of his administration, and that his central goal was to target federal resources towards the neediest students. We have worked with him throughout this long process, and the bill we have written meets those objections. Senator Judd Gregg has been deeply engaged throughout this effort, and, while we often disagreed, we were able to work successfully to resolve our differences. And I am particularly pleased to have been able again to work closely with my longtime friend and colleague Senator Ted Kennedy, with whom I have participated in so many efforts on behalf of those who need our help the most but who are most often ignored. His commitment to a strong reform bill on behalf of all of America's children was critical to forming this final product. Great credit, of course, goes to all of the members of the Conference Committee that produced this bill, and I also want to thank all of the members of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce who crafted this bill earlier in the year. In particular, I want to express my appreciation for Congressman Roemer of Indiana, whose creative contribution to the issue of flexibility formed the basis for our successful resolution to the fight over state block grants, one of the issues that delayed completion of work on this legislation earlier this year. Last, I wish to express my appreciation to the staff of the House and the Senate education committees who worked diligently, through many nights, weekends and vacations, to see this bill through to the end. I feel particularly privileged to have as my lead education adviser Charles Barone, an enormously dedicated and capable public servant whose expertise and insight were invaluable to the successful completion of this bill. An Urgently Needed Bill Despite a commitment by our government to the contrary, our educational system has tolerated extremely low educational achievement for decades. Many thousands of schools throughout this nation, disproportionately in neighborhoods serving low income and disadvantaged youth, have unacceptably high percentages of children who cannot read, write or do math at their grade level. The problem is not that they do not have the ability to succeed or that they are not capable of higher levels of achievement. The problem is that states and school districts have not provided them the opportunity to do so. Those same schools have the least qualified teachers, the highest dropout rates, and are in the greatest physical state of disrepair. Report after report on the weakness of our educational system was published over the years with an inadequate response: 25 percent of teachers who are not qualified to teach in their subject area; 68 percent of 4th graders not able to read at a proficient level; 73 percent of 8th graders not able to conduct math at a proficient level; An unmet school construction and repair bill of $127 billion. Now, with this legislation, we are not only once again committing ourselves to opening the door to quality schools for every child and closing the door on acceptable losses, but we are backing up that commitment with resources and a strong accountability system. This year's effort is rooted in my firm belief that if teachers and their schools have adequate resources and high standards, and not just rhetorical support, America can have a world-class K-12 public school system for all its students. I know that we can do better. Having spent over 25 years on the House education committee, 10 years as chairman of the House Select Committee on Children, Youth and Families, and having worked with and taught in schools in my congressional district over the years, I know that we can do much more to ensure that all children get the kind of education each of us would want for our own sons or daughters. I have spent much of the past decade fighting to pass the key provisions of this bill: teacher quality, parental notification, school accountability, and new and unprecedented targeting of resources. Given the broad support this legislation enjoys, it is difficult to believe that fewer than ten years ago, my efforts to guarantee every child a qualified teacher were dismissed by the Congress. Today we do that, and much more. An Emphasis on Accountability, Resources, and Quality As a result of the changes we have made in the conference committee to the bill introduced earlier this year, this bill will help return our school system to the original goals of the 1965 Elementary and Secondary Education Act--to ensure that all children have an opportunity to learn regardless of income, background or racial or ethnic identity. But unlike the laws on the books over the past 35 years, we will back up our commitment with a set of unambiguous expectations, time-lines, and resources. In this bill, we are prepared to offer a significant increase in resources in exchange for meeting real goals--teachers who teach, students who learn, and schools that succeed. Our bill, for the first time in federal law, establishes clear goals to close the educational achievement gap over a 12-year period. Through a system of state-based annual tests in grades three through eight that will act as a diagnostic tool, we will identify schools in need of improvement and ensure they receive adequate resources to improve. Our bill provides for the unprecedented targeting of federal dollars to the neediest students, including a change in the Title I formula that will reward states who make strides to reduce school finance inequity. Our bill sets the clearest educational standards in history. For the first time in federal law we establish a clear goal of requiring that every teacher is fully qualified to teach in his or her subject area within four years. And we offer the greatest support for our teachers in history. For the first time in federal law we establish a formula to target federal aid for bilingual education based on the number of children in a particular school district who need it. For the first time in federal law we will require that parents receive report cards with clear and precise information on the quality of their child's school. We will allow for unprecedented flexibility in administering programs at the local level. We greatly expand the reading program initiated by Democrats in 1998 and favored by President Bush, including a new pre-K program. We also ensure that all state tests would be compared against one, credible national benchmark test, the NAEP test, and not a smattering of different benchmark tests as the House bill had called for. The NAEP test is already used in a majority of states. To ensure that the requirements of this bill can be met, we provide new resources to schools: New money for teachers to receive mentoring, professional training, and salary enhancements. We are supporting teachers by giving them the resources they need to meet our new standards; We significantly increase funding for Title I, the program for disadvantaged students, and better target the money to the neediest students; We provide assistance for struggling schools; We significantly increase funding for technology, after-school, and other programs that have proven to enhance educational quality. Both on the House floor earlier this year, and then again during the conference committee, we successfully defeated a negative, conservative education agenda that threatened to undermine the original goals of this effort. There are no vouchers in this bill to divert public school money to private schools. There is no ``Straight A's'' state block grant to eviscerate the federal targeting of dollars to the neediest students and to waste critical education dollars on state bureaucracies. We maintain and expand the After-School program, despite the President's attempt to eliminate it as a separate program. We provide authority and resources for school construction, despite opposition to a federal role in modernizing school facilities by the President and Republicans in Congress. We also defeated a negative, conservative social agenda that some attempted to insert into this bill. They wanted to eliminate the Hate Crimes program that teaches tolerance in our schools, but we kept the bill. They wanted to weaken civil rights protections in current law, but we stopped them. a real increase in resources Finally, as I mentioned above, we have made great strides in boosting funding over and above what the President and Republicans in Congress offered. The President began this effort with virtually no increase at all for education: The President asked for only a 3% increase in ESEA. We will now see a 20% increase in ESEA in real appropriations under the FY 02 Labor-HHS appropriations bill; The President asked for only a 3% increase for Title 1. We won a 16- 20% increase in appropriations, The President asked for only a 3% increase for teacher quality. We won more than a 40% increase in appropriations; The President asked for zero percent (0%) for After-School programs. We won an 18% increase in appropriations. commitment to special education funding still unmet Mr. Speaker, there is one final point, regrettably, that I must raise. In this bill, unfortunately, the conferees were not able to reach an agreement on providing additional funding for special education. The Senate bill would have fully funded our federal commitment to special education, whereas the House rejected that provision. But you cannot fund only two-fifths of our commitment to special education and still ``leave no child behind.'' Yet, despite strong, bipartisan and bicameral support for full and mandatory funding for special education, the conference committee twice refused to provide the funding we promised school districts and parents 26 years ago. Conclusion Despite our serious disagreement over the critical issue of special education, I believe that the other reforms and resources that we provide for America's school children in this bill are unprecedented achievements that deserve to be enacted into law without delay and implemented by the Administration in the very manner in which the conference committee intended. There now lies a tremendous obligation by the Bush Administration to write the regulations for this bill and implement those regulations in a manner consistent with the urgent need that led us to write this bill in the first place. This is a strong bill, it is a reasonable bill, and it is a historic bill that draws bright lines for our students and provides new resources to where they are needed most. I look forward to the enactment of this bill before the end of this year. Acknowledgements--H.R. 1 I would like to acknowledge a number of people who helped to make this bill a reality. As I said at the outset, it was a bi-partisan and cooperative process. I would like to acknowledge and thank President George W. Bush, Committee Chairman John Boehner, Senator Ted Kennedy, and Senator Judd Gregg. I would like to acknowledge and thank the other House Democratic conferees for their contributions, Representatives Dale Kildee, Patsy Mink, Major Owens, Rob Andrews and Tim Roemer. I would like to express my grateful appreciation for the hard work of my committee staff, including my top education advisor Charles Barone, as well as John Lawrence, Daniel Weiss, Alex Nock, Denise Forte, Mark Zuckerman, Ruth Friedman and James Kvall, and also the staff for Congresswoman Mink, Brendan O'Neil, for Congressman Roemer, Maggie McDow, and for Senator Kennedy, his top education aide, Danica Petroshius. I would like to thank Chairman Boehner's committee staff, his top education aide, Sally Lovejoy, and his staff director, Paula Nowakowski. In addition, there were many experts and organizations who provided invaluable expertise to our committee as we developed this legislation. Some in particular whom I would like to thank for their help include Bill Taylor and Dianne Piche at the Citizen's Commission on Civil Rights, Kati Haycock and Amy Wilkins at the Education Trust, and Paul Weckstein at the Center for Law and Education. I hope that everyone who had a hand in this enormous effort feels as proud as I do today about this legislation. Mr. Speaker, back in May, this House spoke with almost a unanimous voice, with a strong voice, regarding the kind of education bill that they wanted. I believe that we can say to the Members of this House that we have brought them back a better bill than the bill we passed. My colleagues said they wanted accountability for closing the achievement gap, and we have provided that. They said they wanted to improve the targeting of funds on poor districts and disadvantaged children, and we have done that. They said they wanted new investments and a stronger commitment to teacher and professional development, support and mentoring, and we have done that. They said they wanted a new formula program for bilingual students so the money would go where the students in needs are, and we have done that. They wanted assistance for those schools struggling to turn themselves around, and this legislation does that. They said they wanted the expansion of the reading program, as outlined by the President and other people who are critical of the current reading resources in the Federal program, and we have done that. They wanted the use of nationwide tests so we could test whether or not the assessments made at the State level were accurately reflecting the educational achievement of those children. They also said they did not want Straight A's, and we do not have that. They said they did not want vouchers, and we do not have that. But they wanted flexibility, and we provided that flexibility without the Straight A's. So I think we have delivered a bill that this Congress on both sides of the aisle have overwhelmingly spoken on behalf of for many years, and the results are now here. But let me just say one thing this bill does and what it is built upon. It is built upon a deep and uncompromising belief by the chairman of this committee, by the President of the United States, by Chairman Kennedy, by Senator Gregg and myself, and so many other Members of this Congress and this committee that all of America's children can learn. We believe that an impoverished child does not mean a child that cannot learn. We believe that because an individual is a minority does not mean they cannot learn. And the evidence is overwhelming that we are right. What we did with this legislation was redirect those resources to dramatically enhance the opportunities for success by America's children. The opportunity for success. We cannot guaranty the success, but we can provide the opportunity. Yesterday, the Education Trust put out a report on the eve of our consideration of this bill that identified 1,320 districts with high- poverty students, high percentage of poverty, high minority schools that are excelling in the top third of their States. We can no longer accept the level of failure that we have in the past, and this legislation says that we will not. Yes, it is going to be hard to meet these achievements; yes it will be hard to meet these goals; and yes, it will be hard to hold ourselves accountable, but there is no option to our doing this on behalf of America's children. We heard back in August when many people said this is impossible. I was shocked to hear it from so many educators. Maybe they are in the wrong field. Because here are 1,300 schools that are using the basic tools that are provided in this legislation, that are strengthened in this legislation, that are enhanced with the resources in this legislation, using the very tools in this bill, these 1,320 schools are among the top performers in their States. We want to replicate that all over this Nation for all of America's children. Again, I want to thank the chairman for making this possible. I believe we will do all this with an ``aye'' vote on the passage of this legislation.

Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California. Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from New York (Mr. Crowley). (Mr. CROWLEY asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 5 minutes. Mr. Speaker, let me begin by saying that I believe that today the Committee on Education and the Workforce brings a product that we can all be very proud of and that I believe everyone in this House can support. I want to begin by thanking a lot of people that made this possible. The merits of this bill and the content of this bill is pretty widely disbursed right now, so I want to take a moment to thank those individuals that made this bipartisan product possible. I want to begin with the gentleman from Ohio (Chairman Boehner). It just simply can be said that without him, this conference would have never been successful, and without him, we would not be standing here today to present a dramatically new reform of a 30-year-old program that is going to provide, I think, a greater educational opportunity for America's disadvantaged children. He kept his word about where we were going, he worked hard to see that we got there, and he worked very hard the last 24 hours to drag us across the finish line. I cannot think of a better working experience I could have had with the chairman of my committee. I also want to thank my Democratic Members of the conference committee: The gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Kildee), who probably knows more about reauthorizing ESCA than anybody else in the House of Representatives, the gentlewoman from Hawaii (Mrs. Mink), the gentleman from New York (Mr. Owens), the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Andrews) and the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Roemer), all of whom contributed an immense amount of time, an immense amount of knowledge on this subject, and a commitment to our children. I want to say the same for the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Isakson), the gentleman from California (Mr. McKeon), the gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Hilleary) and the gentleman from South Carolina (Mr. Graham), the Republican Members of our working group who helped us frame this piece of legislation, to present it to the committee, and, ultimately, to present it to the House, where we received an overwhelming vote of 384 to 45. I want to thank our Senate counterparts, Chairman Ted Kennedy of the Senate Committee on Education, and Senator Judd Gregg, the senior Republican on that committee, that were so helpful to us in the conference committee. Clearly the involvement and the support of Secretary Paige and the President's special assistant on this matter, Sandy Kress, who, again, helped guide us through this process. The staff of this committee has worked long and hard. They have spent many days where they worked 24 hours, or longer, 30 hours, going through this legislation and getting it in shape so we could bring it before you. I want to begin by thanking Charles Barone, John Lawrence and Danny Weiss of my staff and of the committee staff, and special thanks to Alex Nock, who worked for the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Kildee), who, again, just had a tremendous amount of expertise on the history of this bill, the intent of this bill, the purpose of this bill, and where we should be going would it. To Denise Forte, who worked hard on civil rights. I want to thank Denise Forte, who worked hard on the civil rights, and Mark Zuckerman, who was our pit bull here, our House attorney, and to Ruth Friedman and James Kvall, all of whom provided support for this legislation. I just want to mention that Denise Forte cannot be here today as we pass this legislation because she is out receiving an award from the National Youth Law Center for her work on juvenile justice legislation that we addressed earlier in the year. I also want to give special thanks to Brendan O'Neil, who works for the gentlewoman from Hawaii (Mrs. Mink), who was very, very helpful to us, and Maggie McDow who works for the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Roemer), who was helpful in constructing a way out of a room that maybe I had painted our conferees into, but she constructed a way out that I think is going to provide a new day for local districts and the flexible use of their fundings. I want to thank Danica Petroshius from Senator Kennedy's office, who really led much of the effort on our side. To Sally Lovejoy, let me just say thank you. Thank you. Thank you for urging us on all of the time and thank you for your cooperation in working with our staff. And to Paula, thank you for overseeing this. Sometimes just sitting there kind of silently rolling her eyes thinking, what is it you are talking about and why do you not stop talking and move on. But we thank you for that effort. Obviously, when we do a reform of this magnitude and this nature and this far-reaching, there is a lot of people on the outside who have serious concerns about the impact on this Nation's children. I want to thank the individuals from Education Trust, Kati Haycock and Amy Wilkins, and I want to thank Bill Taylor and Dianne Piche from the Citizen's Commission on Civil Rights, and the people from the Center for Law and Education, Paul Weckstein from the Center for Law and Education for their help and guidance that they gave us in making sure that this bill really was an improvement for disadvantaged children in this Nation. That was our intent. I believe that is what we accomplished. I will have a little bit more to say about it, but I want to make sure that we have time for the members of the conference committee and members of the committee to talk in support of this legislation and give us the benefit of their thoughts. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California. Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Davis). (Mr. DAVIS of Florida asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from New York (Mr. Engel).

Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Fattah).

Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California. Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as she may consume to the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Watson). (Ms. WATSON of California asked and was given permission to revise and extend her remarks.)

Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from New York (Mr. Owens) and thank him for all of his work. He probably said it many times in this committee, that if we gave disadvantaged children an opportunity to learn with all of the resources necessary and the well-trained teacher, he was fully prepared to accept the accountability, believing that those children could meet and exceed those marks of accountability, and I think it kept us focused on that central theme of this legislation.

Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Hinojosa). (Mr. HINOJOSA asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Woolsey). (Ms. WOOLSEY asked and was given permission to revise and extend her remarks.)

Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentlewoman from Hawaii (Mrs. Mink). Again, I want to thank her so much for really being so tenacious on the question of making sure that these resources were targeted and that they were going to be there for the disadvantaged population and also for her outspoken support of the Women's Equity program in this legislation.

Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California. Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Etheridge). (Mr. ETHERIDGE asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Andrews), and I would thank him for all of his help here with the preschool portions of this bill and also the efforts to expand and support charter schools. I thank him for his work. (Mr. ANDREWS asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Roemer), and publicly again I just want to thank him for all of the work that he did on flexibility, where he helped us overcome what was going to be a terrible, terrible political stalemate and I think worked out to the satisfaction of all of the members of the conference committee. (Mr. ROEMER asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Sanchez).

Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Holt), a member of the committee.

Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California. Mr. Speaker, I yield 30 seconds to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Green). (Mr. GREEN of Texas asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California

Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California. Mr. Speaker, reserving the right to object, although I do not intend to object, I would yield to the gentleman for an explanation of his request.

Mr. GEORGE MILLER of California. Mr. Speaker, further reserving the right to object, I thank the gentleman for his explanation. Mr. Speaker, I withdraw my reservation of objection.